Pirate Bay Uploader Faces $32m Lawsuit over UFC Sports Content

A New York online pirate who uploads live sporting events to torrent sites such as the Pirate Bay and Kickass Torrents is being sued for $32m (£19m).

Zuffa, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) pay-per-view cable channel which shows boxing and wrestling events, has launched a civil lawsuit against Steven Messina, 27, of Great Kills, Staten Island, who lives with his parents.

Messina is known online as "Secludedly" and numerous torrent files bear his name on the internet. On Kickass Torrents, he is considered to be a "verified uploader", meaning that the files he uploads are safe to download and do not contain malware or adware.

Secludedly updated his profile on Kickass Torrents to say: "My apologies to Zuffa and the UFC. All files deleted in respect for my favorite MMA organisation."

According to the lawsuit, Messina was tracked down by Zuffa after boasting on the internet that he was "Provider of best MMA and boxing rips online."

Illegally Capping

Zuffa claims that Messina unlawfully recorded ("capped") 141 UFC events and uploaded them. In the lawsuit, the company refers to him as a group rather than an individual.

The lawsuit states that Messina and his group had aimed to become "the most well-known pirates and infringers on the internet" who were "content to profit handsomely from user payments and donations to fund their rampant piracy and copyright infringement".

Secludedly's Kickass Torrents profileTorrent Freak

Torrent Freak interviewed Messina in 2013 over his capturing events at 60 frames per second (FPS), a super-high frame rate that offers smooth video quality.

Movies are typically shot in 24FPS or 30FPS. Peter Jackson introduced the higher frame rate with The Hobbit, shot in 48FPS.

Recording for commercial gain

Messina said that he subscribed to a service that used a modified MPEG-4 container to stream the broadcasts to his home at 60FPS.

Messina also asked viewers who liked his uploads to donate to his PayPal account, "MMA Capping Fund".

In addition to suing him for copyright infringement, Zuffa is also claiming that he has violated the Federal Communications Act. The company alleges that he purchased the programmes through his satellite TV provider at residential rates and then uploaded them for his own commercial gain.